L. Ron Hubbard 2.0 starting new Scientology offshoot and says he’s getting out of jail soon

The Freezone never fails to entertain us. These are folks who revere Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and engage in his ideas and practices, but are independent of the Church of Scientology. Their numbers are small, but we appreciate them because they will often say things publicly about Hubbard and Scientology that church members keep quiet about.

And one of our favorite recent episodes in the freewheeling Freezone was the ruckus caused a few years ago by a man who claimed that he was “LRH 2.0,” literally the returned Great Thetan himself, L. Ron Hubbard, and that he was back to offer an improved version of Scientology.

Well, as exciting as that prospect seemed, LRH 2.0 actually turned out to be an ex-con named Justin Craig who had legally changed his name to Lafayette Ronald Hubbard. We had a lot of fun in 2018 conversing with “Lafayette” and revealing that as Craig he had a pretty extensive criminal background, including some attempted carjackings and a four-year prison sentence in California.

We were surprised that any of the Freezoners were taking him seriously and actually believed he was Hubbard reincarnated, but some of them really did. Others criticized him, and he seemed to take it to heart, announcing in Summer 2020 that “Scientology is dead,” and then he created something he called “Esperianism” and said he was leaving Washington state.

Then, to our surprise, he turned up in the Anderson County Jail in Clinton, Tennessee, where he had been arrested on October 13, 2021.

He was initially facing charges of false imprisonment (later dropped) and aggravated assault, but then he was also rung up on charges when police found heroin and a heroin/fentanyl compound in the hotel room where he’d been staying, along with other drug paraphernalia.

And while some of those initial charges have been dismissed, Craig/Hubbard is apparently having a hard time in custody, because he’s been arrested two more times and is facing even more charges for assaults that occurred in the hoosegow.

On January 5, 2022, while he was already in custody LRH 2.0 was arrested on four counts of assault, later reduced to two counts. And then, just two weeks ago, on March 27, he was slapped with another felony assault charge along with misdemeanor vandalism.

The total bond amount now keeping Craig in jail has reached $506,000, and he’s facing an August trial on his initial charges.

But don’t lose faith, Esperians! LRH 2.0 has been getting messages out to his Freezone followers with the help of an intermediary, and we thought you’d enjoy seeing his updates from the slammer.

March 25: TO ALL ESPERIANS, given recent developments and tech advancements – I feel it prudent that we come up with a new entity and image. That entity I have determined will be The Church of Para Scientology, COPS. I will share more on this later. Ron

March 26: TO ALL ESPERIANS, I have been reviewing and considering some things – and think a digital org modeled after what used to be called a Central Org is the way to go. That would only be two divisions – Tech and Admin. With Tech consisting of a PE Foundation, Academy, and Hubbard Guidance Center. While Admin would consist of Promotions and Registrations, Materials and Accounts. This would really only have to be bear-bones, and could be run by a crew of volunteers in their own local areas, or even remotely. It is an idea that I think is worth discussing – so I would like your feedback in the group or maybe someone can do a survey? Ron

March 30: TO ALL ESPERIANS, I see that I hit quite a few buttons with my announcement of the formation of a new church or church of para Scientology. Of course I welcome all of your feedback and things are always subject to change – so I will definitely take all your comments into consideration. But I want to point out that the tech, the church, or its buildings did not do what has been done to so many by the CoS. It is people who have done this – and they are ultimately flawed. The OEC, good business practices, and the formation of a church or non-profit are tools that are very effective in bringing the tech to the masses. But they are only as good as the people using them. The fairy tale that the church controls all copyrights etc… is only loosely true. There are many legal loopholes around this I assure you. And the CoS is loosing credibility almost daily. So those things must also be considered as well. Remember, if we are not a religion and it is not Scientology, then we might as well fall into mixing practices and doing spiritualism. So we should all review and think about these things carefully. A lot is about to change. In about a weeks time, you are going to have tech that is so powerful that you can processes a psychotic. So powerful that you can address insanity itself. Powerful enough to raise a being from the dead. And that is the Gods honest truth. So let me ask you, are you ready? Because we have finally arrived at the other end of the Bridge. Ron

April 5: TO ALL ESPERIANS, Things are going well and rumor has it I will be out of here soon. I don’t want to say too much and get everyone’s hopes up, but it looks like that is exactly what may happen. It is all just a waiting game now, and either way it goes, we will be able to wrap this whole tech thing up and get cases resolved in the field. THEN we can disseminate and bring new beings into the fold. For now we need to consolidate what we have and get admin in so that we have a structure from which to properly operate from. I will be getting with Theo to help implement this and also have someone in line for Executive Director, who I will be announcing very soon. Ron

The Church of Para Scientology, or COPS.

We have to hand it to Commodore Craig, he’s entertaining.

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Preparing for trial with Chris

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Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

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